Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization

Overview

Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization is a revised and improved edition of the original civilization-building card game. Players guide civilizations from Antiquity through the Modern Age, developing technologies, constructing wonders, electing leaders, and managing economies. The player who accumulates the most culture points wins. This edition features rebalanced cards, streamlined rules, and improved military mechanics compared to the original.

Components

• Card Row board, Culture/Science/Military boards
• 4 Player boards
• 179+ Civil cards (leaders, wonders, technologies, actions, governments)
• 150+ Military cards (tactics, aggressions, wars, events, territories)
• 250 Plastic cubes (4 player colors)
• 28 Wooden tokens
• Quick Reference sheets
• Rulebook and Guidebook

Setup

1. Set up central boards and card row.
2. Each player takes a player board with starting civilization (Age A government, farms, mines, warriors).
3. Deal civil cards face-up in the card row (13 slots).
4. Place starting workers on initial buildings.
5. Determine starting player randomly.
6. Stack civil and military card decks by age.

Turn Structure

Each player’s turn consists of these phases:

1. Begin Turn

Resolve any start-of-turn effects from cards in play.

2. Political Phase (from Age I onward)

• Play political cards: aggressions, wars, pacts against other players.
• Resolve current event: The topmost event card in the current events queue takes effect.
• Place new event: If you drew a future event last turn, it enters the events queue.

3. Civil and Military Actions

Spend civil actions (determined by government) on:

• Take a card from the card row (cost = position)
• Increase population (pay food from supply; cost escalates)
• Build or upgrade structures (pay resources)
• Complete wonder stages
• Elect leaders
• Develop technologies (pay science)
• Change government (revolution or peaceful transition)
• Play civil action cards

Spend military actions on:

• Draw military cards
• Play military action cards
• Build/upgrade military units

4. Production and Maintenance

• Produce science, food, resources, and culture based on building outputs
• Pay food consumption
• Check corruption (lose excess beyond storage)
• Discard military cards down to hand limit

Actions

Key Civil Actions:

• Take Card: Acquire technology, leader, wonder, or action card from the row. Cost = position (leftmost costs 1 civil action, rightmost costs more).
• Build: Pay resources to construct a new building, placing a worker from your unused population on it.
• Upgrade: Pay the difference in resources to replace an older building with a newer technology.
• Increase Population: Move a token from your yellow bank to unused worker pool. Pay food equal to the food cost shown.
• Wonder: Pay resource cost for one stage of a wonder under construction.
• Technology: Pay science cost to add a technology to your civilization.

Military Actions:

• Draw military cards from the deck.
• Play aggressions (require military superiority over target).
• Declare wars (long-term conflicts resolved next turn).

Scoring / Victory Conditions

Culture points accumulate each turn from culture-producing buildings, wonders, leaders, and technologies. The game ends when the Age III civil card deck is exhausted and all players have had equal turns.

Final Scoring Bonuses:

• Remaining military strength contributes to event resolution
• Completed wonders provide ongoing and end-game culture
• Technologies and leaders provide culture bonuses
• Colonies provide culture bonuses

The player with the most culture points wins.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• Rebalanced Military: This edition improves the military system compared to the original, making aggressions less punishing and wars more strategic.
• Age Transitions: Outdated leaders are removed when transitioning to a new age. Unfinished Age A wonders are discarded.
• Happiness Management: Discontent workers (those without happiness coverage) reduce civil actions. Civil disorder occurs if unhappy workers exceed limit.
• Corruption: Resources and food beyond your storage capacity are lost each turn. Upgrading government or building granaries/warehouses increases capacity.
• Card Row Flow: New cards enter from the right and shift left. Older cards fall off the left end and are removed from the game.
• Science vs. Culture: Science is spent to develop technologies (investment); culture is the scoring currency (accumulates).
• Population Growth: Limited by available yellow tokens and food costs. More advanced farms produce more food.
• Hand Limit: Military cards have a hand limit based on government type.
• Events: Current events resolve at the start of each player’s turn. Future events are placed by players who draw them, creating a delayed-effect system.
• Pacts: Two players can agree to a pact card that benefits both, remaining in effect until cancelled or replaced.
• Territories: Special military cards that allow colonization, providing permanent bonuses.

Player Reference

Resource	Produced By	Used For
Food	Farms	Feed population, grow population
Resources	Mines	Build/upgrade structures
Science	Labs	Develop technologies
Culture	Temples, Theaters, etc.	Victory (accumulates)
Military Strength	Military units + tactics	Aggressions, wars, defense

Government Types: Determine civil actions, military actions, and hand limit. Advanced governments are strictly better but cost science/actions to adopt.

Victory: Most culture points at game end